The honors recognize their excellence in research, teaching, and service, as well as their continued impact on students and the field.
Associate Professor Peter Peterson has been named the next Chester and Olive McCloskey Endowed Chair in Chemistry. Peterson specializes in atmospheric chemistry, remote sensing, and air ice chemical interactions. Peterson received his Ph.D. in environmental chemistry at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2015 and joined the Whittier College faculty in 2018 after working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan. Peterson and students have installed NASA-funded instruments throughout campus to study air quality.
The Chester and Olive McCloskey Endowed Chair in Chemistry was established by alumni Chet ’40 and Olive ’40 McCloskey in 2007, and is designed to support the teaching, research, and service of an inspirational and dedicated professor.
Professor José Orozco has been named the next Nadine Austin Endowed Chair in U.S. History. Orozco is an expert in modern Mexican and Latin American history, as well as Chicano history. His research has touched on the history of Tequila in Mexico, Chicano art, and immigration. He is currently working on a book on the region of Los Altos de Jalisco, Mexico, and the question of "whiteness" in post-Revolutionary Mexico. In 2018, he published a book based on over 200 letters written by a Mexican sharecropper to his daughter who lived in Stockton, California, titled Receive our Memories: The Letters of Luz Moreno, 1950-1952.
The Nadine Austin Wood Chair in U.S. History was named in honor of Nadine Wood, the deceased spouse of Donald “Bill” Wood. Nadine was a passionate advocate for history education, dedicating much of her energy to ensuring that all citizens could learn their history at both the national and local levels.
